Pregame: New faces

July 22, 2011by rob biertempfel

You’re going to like Jason Grilli.

Joe Capozzi, the fantastic beat writer for the Marlins, sent me a message yesterday saying that Grilli, who played a few years ago in Miami, is one of his favorite people in the game. After talking with Grilli twice since he signed with the Pirates, it’s easy to see why Capozzi gushed. Grilli is honest, down-to-earth and hot-damn excited about to be wearing Black and Yellow. “I’m very excited to be here, with all that’s going on in this city,” he said this afternoon. “I just want to mix in.”

»»» Steve Pearce and Ronny Cedeno were activated today from the DL. Chris Leroux, Josh Harrison and Pedro Ciriaco were optioned back to Triple-A Indy. No surprises there.

»»» The Pirates will appear on Fox’s Saturday Game of the Week on back-to-back Saturdays — Aug. 13 against the arch-foe Brewers in Milwaukee and Aug. 20 against the Reds at PNC Park. “We are excited for the opportunity to showcase not only our exciting team, but the passion of our fans, the best ballpark in the country and our great city to a national audience,” prez Frank Coonelly said in a prepared statement. Both games will start at 4:11 p.m. ET. The postgame fireworks show that had been set for Aug. 20 has been cancelled.

Those new faces, other than Grilli, are the same faces that were here before, and I would say we still don’t have that proven hitter that we need. Someone like Pujols, for example, who almost always manages to kill the Buccos. And what about the first inning runs that put the game out of reach. If we had a decent offense, those runs could be made up. The base running blunders do not help either. Come on Pirates, lets not mess up the rest of the season. Start beating those top teams instead of rolling over and playing dead.